Norman Font - St James - Ansty, Wiltshire
Posted by: 
SMacB
N 51° 02.162 W 002° 03.800
30U E 565673 N 5654249
A Norman font in St James' church, Ansty.
Waymark Code: WM12TRK
Location: South West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 07/15/2020
Views: 0
"Most of the church is 14thc. with later medieval additions, with restorations in 1842, 1878, 1917 and 1965. Part of the nave wall may be 12thc., but the main object of interest for the Corpus is the 12thc. font.
The manor was valued at £5 in 1086 in the Domesday Book. There is very little documentation of the church until Walter de Turberville, lord of Ansty manor, nominated a priest to serve the church, some time before 1210.
There are four reset fragments in the nave. These were too high to be measured. At the north side of the nave, above the easternmost arch of the north arcade there is a small trumpet scallop capital. At the west end of the nave, above the west window, there is a reset capital, and two stones that seem to have been voussoirs from a door decorated with roundels.
This font has a unique 12thc. bowl standing on a shaft and what is likely to be a later base. The bowl is decorated with a band around its top from which hangs a series of fourteen 'droplets'.
Dimensions
|
Circumference of bowl |
1.9 m |
|
Circumference of shaft |
1.20 m |
|
Height of band around bowl |
0.06 m |
|
Height of base |
0.20 m |
|
Height of bowl |
0.45 m |
|
Height of droplets on band |
0.095 m |
|
Height of font |
1.02 m |
|
Height of shaft |
0.37 m" |
SOURCE - (visit link)